If talent alone was enough to succeed at sport, Vinod Kambli would have been amongst the highest run-getters in Indian cricket history. What separates the truly great not just from the ordinary but also the very good is ambition, resilience, sound temperament, self-discipline and a capacity for hard work. Some luck too, but this is easily squandered if the others are missing.

The amazing form of Novak Djokovic this year which has taken him to the top of men’s tennis (never mind the rankings as even Rafael Nadal would agree) shows the importance of mental toughness.
Till a year ago, it seemed that Djokovic would be consigned to being an also-ran to Rafael Nadal and Roger Federer; today, the two legendary tennis players are playing catch-up with him.
From individual to team sports is a paradigm shift because there are multiple bodies and minds involved — all different in physique, skills and temperament. But here too, the truism that skill alone cannot produce a winning unit is relevant. Unless the talent of the individuals is harnessed properly, a cohesive winning effort is unlikely. Indeed, if there were 11 geniuses, there are greater chances of internecine ego-battles than winning a match!
In cricket, for instance, the West Indies in the 1960s read Hunte, Bynoe, Kanhai, Butcher, Nurse, Sobers, Holford, Murray, Hall, Griffith, Gibbs. In talent terms, the team were no way inferior to Clive Lloyd’s world beating side of the 1980s, yet didn’t win consistently.
Likewise, Pakistan in the 1970s boasted an array out outstanding cricketers in Majid Khan, Sadiq Mohammed, Zaheer Abbas, Javed Miandad, Mushtaq Mohammed, Asif Iqbal, Imran Khan, Wasim Bari, Sarfraz Nawaz, Iqbal Qasim and Salim Altaf, but this line-up can’t match Imran’s lesser talented one in the late 1980s and early 1990s.
One can extend the argument to other sports too. The biggest budget and most renowned players have not helped Real Madrid too much. It is also a moot point whether two of the greatest tennis players of all time — Jimmy Connors and John McEnroe — would have made as effective a combination as Leander Paes and Mahesh Bhupathi.
The fact is that 11 gifted individuals do not necessarily make a team: what does is a mix of right talent and temperament bound together by a common aim. What this entails is for the players concerned to be given specific job profiles which they believe in and accept without compunction, a work ethic that everybody subscribes too, and a sublimation of the individual ego in as much as is possible in deference to the collective. For the discerning, even given the topsy-turvy nature of Twenty20 cricket, this comes through quite clearly in the IPL too.
And finally, I am unclear what the BCCI hopes to achieve by plain peevish disregard for the proposal to have the UDRS in place in all international cricket. It seems ridiculous in the extreme that the majority of countries subscribe to the UDRS, but whenever India is involved, this system is not in place. Is it possible to have different countries interpreting the penalty corner rule in hockey differently? I can understand the misgivings about technology which is admittedly not yet flawless. But in that case, the BCCI must convince the ICC otherwise, or go with the rest.
Conversely, the ICC could hold a secret ballot involving registered first-class cricketers from all countries to vote on the UDRS and all the Boards go with the verdict.